This invention relates to corn harvesting machinery, specifically the spatial relationship between the exit area of the corn header and the retrieving area of the combine feeder house. The corn header contains a plurality of row units to strip and separate the ears from the stalk, a cross auger and trough for delivering harvested material to the feeder house. The combine feeder house contains a chain slat undershot conveying system for retrieving material from said corn head and delivering harvested material to the threshing system, of which all are existing art.
The crop dividers in combination with the gathering chain(s) and stripper plates as in the prior art have always retrieved the crop from near ground level into the row units. The stripper plates in combination with the stalk rolls will strip and separate the ears with minimal amounts of mog (material other than grain). Said gathering chain(s) then feed the heterogeneous material (ears and mog) into the cross auger and trough. The cross auger is located between the exit point of the row units and in front of the feeder house opening. The cross auger then delivers this material to the feeder house for conveying to the combine for ultimate threshing and separating.
This results in power being required to move this crop on an inclined plane at three stages of the conveying process. This first stage of the conveying process is in the row unit where there is adequate power and crop engagement for elevating the crop from near ground level into the cross auger and trough. The second stage of conveying is accomplished by the combination of the transverse cross auger and trough. The cross auger has flighting on it, which applies power to the material horizontally in the cross auger trough, thus having changed the motion which was in line with the combine and the row unit to a lateral movement to the exit area of the cross auger trough. This material is then fed into the third stage of the conveying process, the feeder house of the combine. Thus the second stage of movement of the crop is a result of being contained against the floor and vertical side of the cross auger trough. The two lateral sections of the cross auger are oppositely wound and meet in the middle so that the horizontal movement of the crop from the right side and the left side of said cross auger meet and create a mass to be transferred to the feeder house.
At the entrance to the feeder house, the back vertical wall of the cross auger trough, in front of the feeder house, is removed so that the material may be fed from the cross auger floor into the feeder house and most of the movement imparted to the mass of material assembled at the entrance is toward the feeder house.
This movement is imparted by the cross auger rotation but is applied at the point of exit to push the mass up a severe inclined plane. Force is no longer imparted to the inert material (dead space). The material must have adequate energy imparted to propel the crop up this severe inclined floor or plane to the retrieving area of the third conveyor.
Because the flow pattern of the material is through a dead space and simultaneously severely up hill the material tends to slow down and continue to pile up as material pushes against material.
In the past thirty years two things have changed. #1 yields have doubled through improved genetics, fertilization, populations, and row spacings. #2 harvesting machines are larger with increased horse power and ground speeds which require corn headers with more row units. These two factors in combination have significantly increased the flow rate and mass of material being delivered by said corn head and retrieved by said feeder house to a level that can now cause build up, back feeding, tossing of mog onto the deck covers, fluff, tossing of ears onto the ground, and resultant plugging in the cross auger feeder house area.